Member of European Parliament Frank Engel is also observing constitutional referendum in the Republic of Nagorno Karabakh. In the interview with Aravot.am he referred to the Azerbaijanian blacklist (list of people who have visited Nagorno-Karabakh) and Russian blogger Alexander Lapshin’s case.
“I am not intended to go to Belarus anytime soon, even though the difference between me and Mr. Lapshin is that formally I am not on the black list. Even though they have been occasionally pretending that whoever comes here, says something is included in that list. The last time I consulted I was not on it, Lapshin was. And on that basis, they made a fishy deal from one dictatorship to another dictatorship in order to have him arrested. I am not afraid for myself when I go to a civilized place, but as I will not easily set foot on Azerbaijan, maybe I would not be allowed to, who knows. I would not try to Belarus, either,” he said.
We were interested what expectations Frank Engel has from the referendum, he replied: “I expect clean and democratically contestable electoral process. That’s what we are here to witness. I am not assuming as far as the result goes. Right now I am interested in the process, I am interested in turn out, I am interested in participation, I am interested in how massively people of Artsakh are going to turn out and cast the votes. Tomorrow night we will know”.Referring to the announcements of the OSCE and Russia that they are not recognizing the results of the referendum, Frank Engel said: Did you expect anything else?
